(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to reversible hinging means for a side-swinging door, and particularly to a reversible center hinge means between two doors which are vertically aligned.
(2) Description Of the Prior Art
Patents are available showing two-door refrigerators with reversible hinges, such as the Fellwock U.S. Pat. No. 3,389,424, which issued June 25, 1968. FIG. 2 of this patent is a schematic front elevational view of a three-door refrigerator illustrating the selective disposition of the hinge system elements for alternate left and right-hand door-swinging arrangements. FIGS. 8 and 9 of this Fellwock patent show the details of the center or intermediate hinge, but in all cases this center hinger is located above the top edge of the lower door. The double hinge pin is a fixed pin, and this center hinge must be inverted as it is exchanged from one side of the cabinet to the other, but in both positions the mounting screws for the center hinge are apparently accessible despite the presence of the lower door.
Another patent showing a two-door refrigerator with reversibly mounted doors is the Sandin/Schmitt U.S. Pat. No. 3,430,386, which issued Mar. 4, 1969, and is assigned to the same assignee as is the present invention. In this patent, there is an elongated L-shaped bracket which extends the entire width of the cabinet in the area between the two vertically aligned doors. The double hinge pin used in this patent is a threaded member that is threaded into threaded openings in the L-shaped bracket, either at the right end or the left end of the bracket.
A third patent showing a two-door refrigerator with reversible hinge means is that of Kesling/Watt, U.S. Pat. No. 3,455,061, which issued July 15, 1969. The top door has a hinge means in each one of the four corners of the door, and two of these hinge means on the same side of the door are inactivated for swinging the door in one direction about the two remaining hinge means. If a reverse swinging action is desired, then the two active hinges are inactivated and the two inactive hinges are activated. The lower door of this patent has a hinge means in each of its two lower corners, and they cooperate with the hinges in the two lower corners of the upper door. The patent does not have a reversible center hinge as in the present invention. This design is apparently an expensive design that requires a surplus of hinge means.